Wire fabric



Patented Oct. 17, 1933 PATENT OFFICE WIRE FABRIC Charles C. Wickwire, Cortland, N. Y., assignor to Wickwire Brothers, Cortland, N. Y., a corporation of New York Original application October 4, 1930, Serial No. 486,467. Divided and this application May 16, 1931. Serial No. 537,939

6 Claims.

This invention relates to wire fabrics of the type in which the strands extend diagonally with reference to the length of the fabric so as to produce a diamond mesh. The strands are welded together at their crossing points and, in the preferred form, the two sets of strands cross each other at right angles, so that the openings are squares (set diagonally) rather than rhombs. The angle of crossing is, however, a function of the rates at which the wires are fed during weaving and is, therefore, subject to variation. The strands are not interwoven, but all of the strands of one oblique set overlie the strands of the other set.

Such a fabric may be regarded as in effect made up of a cylindrical tube whose wall comprises parallel progressive spiral strands, so that when this tube is flattened on itself, a complete fabric is produced, and in which all strands lie either in the top or the bottom plane.

One of the objects of this invention is to produce a wire fabric in which the individual strands are welded together at the edges of the fabric to produce an inextensible edge, serving as a reinforcement, without the use of additional selvage wires.

Another object is to produce a wire fabric in which two sets of strands overlie one another, and are welded together at their crossing points without interweaving.

A still further object of the invention is to produce a fabric which is particularly well adapted to being made by electrical welding processes, thereby avoiding the formation of lumps or protuberances at the joints.

Other objects and advantages will appear from the following specification when read in connec.

tion with the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing, the single gure is a plan view of a strip of wire fabric embodying my invention, the central portion of the strip being broken away and the sections on opposite sides of the break being alined to show how the individual wires are related.

In the drawing, the reference characters 1, 2, 3, etc., designate individual strands of the fabric, the two planes being indicated by the addition of subscripts a and b locating the bottom and the top planes, respectively, of the fabric. These strands are continuous and each one passes across the entire width of the fabric in one plane; along the edge of the fabric, and then returns across in the other plane, and so on. For example, strand 1 passes across the strip in the bottom plane and is welded at '7 to a parallel strand (Cl. 18S- 82) 2. This strand 1 then passes in a straight line parallel to the length of the fabric to form a section 6, and then into the top plane through which it returns to the opposite edge of the strip. All of the strands pass in this manner from one plane of the fabric to the other and are welded to all the strands which they intersect at 8, in addition to the edge welds 7. In this Away the welds at the joints 7 and 8 present no protuberances and the mesh openings are unimpeded by accumulations of uxing metal.

The strands are all continuous pieces of wire and the sections 6, joined by welds 7, form a smooth, straight, inextensible edge without the use of additional selvage wires. The strands pass from one plane of the fabric to the other in the same manner at both edges of the strip, as will Vbe understood without further explanation.

One form of machine suitable for manufacturing fabric according to my invention, is that fully Idisclosed and claimed in myco-pending application Ser. No. 486,467, filed October .4, 1930, Patent No. 1,911,541 of which the present case is adivision and to which reference may be had for disclosure of details. l

It will be evident from the foregoing, that this fabric comprises two sets of diagonally related wires disposed in parallel planes and welded together at their crossing points. Because of this structure, no selvage wires are needed, the wires in passing from one plane to the other being drawn tight and welded at their crossing point to form a substantially straight inextensible edge.

Wire fabrics embodying this invention are suit able for use in many relations, because it is obvious that the strands may be made of wire in different sizes, according to the use to which the fabric is to be put.

The fabric has the particular advantage of providing a plain open mesh which is unobstructed by welding material or. by other projections which are incident to interwoven structures, and'rendering it capable of being made with a very large open mesh using strand wires of very small cross-section. Heretofore such a construction, while desirable, was not feasible because of difficulties in weaving.

In this specification the term diagonal mesh has been applied to the fabric u nder consideration. In manufacturing wire fabric of the type known in the trade as diamond mesh, the strands of the fabric are inclined to the length of the fabric, the individual wires extending diagonally across the fabric. Hence, this fabric may be appropriately termed .diagonal mesh fabric, regardless of whether the openings be squares or rhombs.

l Although I have herein shown and described only one form'of fabric embodying my invention, it will be obvious that changes may be made in the details, within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from` the spirit and scope of my invention. 1

1. A wire fabric composed of diagonally related crossing wires in non-interwoven relation and welded at their crossing points, the fabricl edges vbeingfmade up of sections of the diagonal wires bent into parallelism with the length of the fabric andwelded together to form an inextensible edge.

2. A diamond mesh wire fabric made up of crossing wire strands in non-interwoven relation and welded at their intersections and having an inextensible strand parallel with the length of the fabric, said strand being made up of por- Y fabric length and welded together.

4. A wire fabric composed of diagonally relat; ed wires disposed in parallel planes and welded at their crossing points, the wires passing from one plane to the other at the edges of the fabric in lines parallel with the length of the fabric to form a substantially straight inextensible edge.

5. A diagonal mesh Wire fabric composed of two sets of wires disposed in two adjacent parallel planes and Welded together at each of their crossing points, all of the wires passing from one plane to the other at-the edge of the fabric to form a continuous inextensible edge strand composed of Aportions of successive wires welded together.

6. A diagonal mesh Wire fabric comprising two sets of wires-the strands of each set being continuous throughout the fabric length and the sets being disposed in two adjacent parallel planes and welded together at each of their crossing points, each plane being made up entirely of straight parallel strand wires extending'diagonally across the fabric from one edge to the other, the strands in one plane being continuations of strands in the other plane, and the strands 

